


We Can't Stop What We Have Begun

by nesselberry



Series: In Another Universe [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, First Dates, Fluff, M/M, Minor Allison Argent/Isaac Lahey, Minor Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura, Minor Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes, ridiculously adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9397943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nesselberry/pseuds/nesselberry
Summary: Sequel to "Back at the Beginning" follows on to Stiles and Derek's first date with a ridiculous amount of fluff."  “Well I’m glad we got the topic of milkshake flavours out of the way early on. Imagine 6 months down the track finding something out that big.” Derek jokes but Stiles feels his heart jolt. 6 months. Derek thinks they could be together in 6 months. As Derek also seems to realize what he said, he flushes red again, averts his eyes and starts stammering. It shouldn't be so endearing. “I just mean- I didn’t mean to assume like we’d- but I meant as a joke. I’m sorry if that was-““Derek!” Stiles cuts him off and places a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I uh… I would like to think we’d still be together in 6 months.”  "





	

**Author's Note:**

> So a few people asked for a sequel, and after travelling Europe and finishing exams I finally got this done! I will say Derek is OOC in the sense that the Hale family is still alive so he is well adjusted - as much as anyone really is anyway.  
> This work is un-beta'd so feel free to let me know if I've made any grammar/spelling/plot mistakes.

Stiles is making his way across campus after his last class of the day, whistling as he goes. He has a date with Derek Hale. _He_ , Stiles Stilinski, has a date with _the_ _Derek Hale_! How on earth did he manage to pull that off? Stiles has been pining after the guy ever since Isaac introduced him at one of their group lunches. He’s almost as tall as Stiles, has the most adorable bunny teeth, not to mention arms and shoulders to die for. Stiles almost died that morning looking at all that on display.

Not to mention last semester when Stiles made sure to get up early just to leave his room at the same time as Derek just for the 30 seconds of conversation they’d have before splitting in different directions. Stiles was pretty sure he was moving into obsessive territory. But it doesn’t matter because he has a date! AND DEREK ASKED HIM!

Stiles is smiling to himself as he unlocks the door to their building and checks the time, 2pm. He wonders if he should knock on Derek’s door now, he could still be sleeping after all. They didn’t exchange numbers so it’s not like Stiles can just text him to find out. He’s almost at his and Scott’s room when he decides instead of continuing to Derek’s he’ll just walk into his own. To… freshen up, or something.

Closing the door, Stiles turns around to see Scott and Kira still sitting on Scott’s bed, just smiling dopily at each other. “Did either of you two actually go to class today?” They both comically jump at the sound of Stiles’ voice, which is probably answer enough.

“What do you mean dude it’s only…” Scott leans over to check the time and his face falls. “2pm. It’s 2pm Kira we missed class!” Kira doesn’t seem to concerned though. Until she turns to Stiles.

“Wait are you only just coming back to the room now?” She asks, worrying her lip between her teeth.

“Well some of us actually care about their education.” Stiles smirks before heading towards his side of the room and dropping his bag next to his desk.

“We didn’t even hear you come in last night.” Kira wonders quietly.

“I didn’t, Scott never let me know when it was, you know, clear.” Stiles turns waggling his eyebrows in a ridiculous manner that has Kira laughing. Stiles couldn’t be upset at them, not really. Them sexiling him got him a date with Derek after all.

“Stiles I’m so sorry,” Kira says when she’s stopped laughing. “We were asleep by like 2am, I thought maybe you were still at the library. Please tell me you didn’t sleep in the hallway?” As the thought crosses her mind, she looks like she’s about to cry so Stiles neglects to mention the couple hours he did spend sleeping in the hallway.

“It’s okay, I found a friend’s room to crash in, it’s okay. But I guess congratulations are in order!” Stiles grins, “let me see the hand.” He moves over as Kira blushes and shows off the ring. Not that Stiles hasn’t already seen it but it looks far more beautiful on Kira’s hand than in the box.

Never one to let it go though, Kira says “next time I promise we’ll go back to my place, the only reason we didn’t was that we were closer to here and well… I suppose we couldn’t wait.” The blush deepens. Scott has been strangely silent and Stiles looks over to him and sees him looking at his hands and looking more than a little contrite.

“You okay there Scotty?” Stiles asks, and Scott looks up at him, puppy dog eyes and all.

“I’m so sorry Stiles, I didn’t mean to kick you out I knew you had a class and I totally meant to text you when we were decent and I can’t believe I didn’t. I promise whenever you need me to be out of here with no warning that is okay. I’ll give you like five free passes no explanation needed I can’t believe I did that-” Stiles laughs cutting him off, while pulling Scott into a hug.

“It’s okay man, honestly. I’m really happy for you guys. But I will totally use up those five passes.” Stiles winks at him as he pulls away and Scott smiles tentatively at him. Stiles moves away and checks the time. It’s almost 2:30 so he can probably head over to Derek’s. Probably. “Okay, I’m heading out, I’ll see you guys later.”

“Where are, you going? You don’t have any assignments coming up, do you?” Scott asks moving to sit back with Kira.

“Nah, uh… Can I tell you after?” Stiles asks, running a hand through his hair. “Just, don’t wanna jinx anything or whatever.” Scott still looks confused but nods anyway. He loves Scott, if it were Lydia he’d be forced into a full interrogation before leaving the room.

“Yeah sure, I’ll talk to you later.”

Stiles smiles and says goodbye while he makes sure he has his key and wallet before heading out the door and turning towards Derek’s. He stops out front and takes a deep breath hoping that Derek is home and awake. He knocks and waits. Not even 2 seconds later the door opens to Derek, wearing a shirt this time (thankfully, Stiles can’t think with all that on display).

“Stiles!” Derek’s face breaks into a grin. “Your classes are done?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I should come straight over or if you’d still be sleeping-“

“No, no I’ve been up for a couple hours. Do you want to go get a late lunch or coffee? Or…” He trails off looking a bit unsure and biting his lip and Stiles just thinks he’s so damn cute.

“Well I never say no to food if you want to go grab something to eat?”

Derek looks almost relieved, “yeah, that sounds perfect. There’s a diner across the road from one of my lecture halls that makes amazing burgers.”

“Great, shall we?” Stiles smiles and gestures for Derek to exit, which he does before turning and locking his door.

“Isaac still not back?” Stiles asks as they head back to the stairs.

“Nah, when he heads to Allison’s he’s normally there for days. I think he spends more time there than in the room he actually pays rent for.” Derek chuckles.

Stiles laughs with him, “maybe they should look into a place off campus?”

“I suggested that to him, and he seemed interested. Maybe next semester.” Stiles nods and they lapse into silence. Stiles is trying really hard not to break it as well. He doesn’t want to scare Derek off with all his talking before they even get to the diner. Last night was different. There was no date to potentially mess up so he hadn’t really filtered himself too heavily.

But now. He doesn’t want Derek to realize what a spaz he can be and decide he’s not worth the effort. So he fiddles with his sleeve and tries to think of an appropriate topic of conversation that doesn’t surround child sleeping patterns because he doesn’t think anyone outside his course would find that as fascinating as he does. He’s so stuck in his head that he almost misses when Derek talks to him.

“Do you have Harris for Societal Behaviours?” Stiles just nods and makes an affirmative noise. “Is he still a raging dick?”

Stiles laughs, taken a big off guard. “You had Harris?”

“Yeah, Sophmore year when I toyed with the idea of minoring in psychology. The guy may have been part of the reason I stopped and changed to minoring in classic literature instead.”

“That’s quite a leap.” Stiles comments. “What’s your major.”

“History.” Stiles must make a face because Derek laughs, “I know, I know. I don’t really look like a history student.”

“That’s not what I was thinking!” It’s totally what he was thinking. “I just wondered what you can actually do with that.”

Derek groans and runs a hand over his face. “Don’t remind me. I have just over a semester to go and I’m considering doing my masters plain and simply to put off finding a real job.”

And just like that the conversation is easy as they walk the rest of the way to Carter’s Diner, they mostly talk about how horrendous Harris is as a teacher and who let him out in public. They sit at a booth along the window and look at the menu. Stiles sees curly fries and a bacon burger on the first page and knows exactly what he’s getting. Derek didn’t even look at the menu.

“Come here a lot, do you?” Stiles asks.

Derek ducks his head, looking bashful. “Often enough. Erica, Boyd and Isaac love this place so we come fairly often.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never been here.” Stiles comments looking around. It’s got such a nice vibe. Not too busy as it’s between the lunch and dinner crowds but there are a few other customers scattered throughout the shop.

“They’re open 24 hours so when I was a Sophomore I came here a lot to study. Until I realized eating pie while I studied every night was not really a good idea.”

“From the looks of last night, your dieting habits haven’t really improved at all.” Stiles jokes.

Derek flushes red but laughs along as well. “I told you, that’s only when I have assignments to do.”

The waitress walks over to them then and takes their order, addressing Derek by name and just asking if he wants his usual. He nods while Stiles orders the bacon burger with curly fries and a caramel milkshake. To which Derek wrinkles his nose.

“What?” Stiles asks, once the waitress has moved on.

“Caramel? Really?”

“Hey! Caramel is a greatly underappreciated flavour. More people need to give it a chance okay!” Stiles argues back but he can’t help but smile as he does.

“If you like caramel I don’t think this can work.” Derek says totally deadpan. “I need a chocolate kind of guy in my life.”

Stiles actually snorts at that. “Chocolate? God how boring and unoriginal. No thanks, I’d rather have the spontaneity of literally any other flavour.”

Derek just rolls his eyes, “Chocolate is safe and dependable. You know what you’re getting with chocolate. Caramel isn’t always caramel, sometime it’s salted or it’s toffee but people call it caramel. Nope. Can’t do it.”

“That’s the beauty of it though man! You can get so many kinds of caramel! It’ll always keep you on your toes, and open your eyes to new flavours!”

They’re arguing about milkshake flavours. And Stiles is having the time of his life. He’s pretty sure he’s still grinning but the look in Derek’s eyes tells him the older man is close to grinning as well. They just stare at each other for a moment before both breaking into laughter.

“Well I’m glad we got the topic of milkshake flavours out of the way early on. Imagine 6 months down the track finding something out that big.” Derek jokes but Stiles feels his heart jolt. 6 months. Derek thinks they could be together in 6 months. As Derek also seems to realize what he said, he flushes red again, averts his eyes and starts stammering. It shouldn't be so endearing. “I just mean- I didn’t mean to assume like we’d- but I meant as a joke. I’m sorry if that was-“

“Derek!” Stiles cuts him off and places a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I uh… I would like to think we’d still be together in 6 months.”

“We don’t really know each other Stiles, that’s incredibly optimistic.” Derek replies, but Stiles can see him relaxing.

“Not true, we have mutual friends and have been to parties together. You know, we’ve hung out. We may not know each other very well but that’s kind of what dating is for, right?” Stiles bites his lip at that and looks Derek in the eye. He smiles slightly back.

“Yeah, yeah it is.”

At that moment their food arrived, Stiles withdraws his hand from Derek’s arm – having forgotten he’d left it there – and grabs a curly fry and thanks the waitress. Once he’s turned back to Derek he almost laughs. Chocolate shake and a steak sandwich. It’s very Derek. Derek catches him looking just as he’s about to bite into his sandwich.

“What?”

Stiles just laughs, “nothing. Just, totally what I expected.” Derek quirks an eyebrow at that and Stiles tries not to swoon. How he wishes he could do that. It’s ridiculously hot. “I mean,” he clears his throat. “Chocolate. It’s dependable.” Stiles smiles hesitantly at Derek. Derek puts his sandwich down and smiles back.

“Caramel. It’s always exciting.” Stiles feels himself flush and hurries to eat some more fries.

 

***

 

They make small talk while they eat, but it’s mostly silent. Stiles has worked hard not to talk while he’s eating. He either talks to much and his food goes cold or he talks with food in his mouth which, while Scott might not care, is not very good first date etiquette. It’s been a while since Stiles has been on a date but this feels like it’s going pretty damn well. It’s so relaxed and easy. Any nervousness he had pretty much disappeared in the first 10 minutes. He doesn’t want to get too excited. He knows there’s still a multitude of reasons this could end up not working. But damn he really wants to see Derek again. Really often.

“So, why child psychology?” Derek asks while sipping the last of his milkshake.

“Well, I mean for a while I was considering joining the police academy. My dad’s the sheriff back home and it just kind of felt like it was inevitable I guess that I’d follow him. But uh, when I was in my senior year I was talking to the careers counsellor and he was saying how impressive it is that I did so well with my learning disability.” Derek quirks a surprised eyebrow at that but doesn’t ask. “I have ADHD, I’m better at managing it now than when I was in school but yeah. It used to be really difficult for me to focus on homework for any length of time.

“But when I was just diagnosed and starting school, my mum developed a lot of techniques for me at home to keep me focused on the task at hand. It involved a lot of colour coding, and taking scheduled breaks among other things. She really helped set me up for the rest of it you know.” Stiles coughs then, trying not to get too emotional about his mum. Dead relatives aren’t really first date small talk. “But uh, I was talking to the counsellor about it and he was saying how a lot of kids don’t get that and are left to struggle. And that if they learn different techniques when they are first starting school it’s a lot easier you know? So yeah childhood psychology with a minor in education so I can work closely with schools. In theory. When I actually graduate.”

“Wow, that’s pretty amazing Stiles.” Stiles just kind of flushes and ducks his head. “No, really it is. You’re going to help so many kids.”

Stiles smiles back. “I hope so.” They lapse into silence while Stiles swirls the dregs of his milkshake around. “So, why history?”

“And why not something to do with fitness?” Derek jokes back.

Stiles shrugs, “you said it not me.” He winks.

Derek laughs, “I just love it, I love what we can learn from history and seeing how we seem to be in a cycle, constantly repeating past mistakes. I like knowing where we come from and how we got here you know? And I guess the classic literature just tied in, seeing what was happening when these people were writing. What social and political issues they dealt with in their time. I find it incredibly fascinating.” Derek’s ears turn red. “But I know that a lot of people find it boring so I try not to talk about it.”

“No, no! Talk about it as much as you like. I love it when people are passionate about something and can talk about it. Even if I don’t understand I’d love to hear all about it.” Stiles is quick to reassure him.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Derek smiles back at him.

Stiles checks the time on his phone and it’s almost 5. He can’t believe time passed that quickly.

“What time is it?” Derek asks.

“Uh, 4:50.” Stiles replies putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Shit.” Derek says looking disappointed.

“Got somewhere to be?” Stiles jokes, hoping very much that he doesn’t.

Derek sighs, “unfortunately yes. Boyd is going ring shopping for Erica-“

“No way! Boyd’s going to propose! That’s fantastic.” Stiles interrupts.

Derek just laughs, “Yeah, and he’s gotten the owner to reopen the store for him at 6 so there’s absolutely no risk of Erica or any of her friends walking by.” Derek rolls his eyes. “I told him he should just go out of town but he said Erica will want to know why he’s going away and he doesn’t want her to think he’s going to propose. He wants it to be as big a surprise as possible.”

“And he wants you there to help?”

“Yeah, I told him to ask my sister, Laura, because I know nothing about jewellery. He’s worried Laura would tell Erica. Which to be fair, she probably would. So, I have to go and help him.”

“Which means we gotta go.” Stiles finishes.

“Unfortunately,” Derek smiles at him. “But I do need to get my car to drive and pick him up so I can at least walk you back to the dorms.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stiles replies as they stand. They fight a bit about paying the bill but Derek insists since he asked, he should pay. Stiles just responds by saying he’ll pay next time and enjoys watching as Derek’s ears and neck flush red and a smile appears on his face.

They walk most of the way back in comfortable silence, just enjoying being together. As their building comes into view Stiles knocks his shoulder with Derek’s.

“I had a good time today.” He says smiling down at his shoes.

“Me too,” Derek replies. “we should do it again sometime.”

“Absolutely” Stiles smiles at him. “You should uh, give me your number so we can like text for details and I can send you ridiculous history memes.”

Derek laughs but pulls his phone out nonetheless. “If you find any that Laura hasn’t already sent me I will be extremely impressed.”

“Challenge accepted.” Stiles replies as he finishes putting his details in and sends himself a message before handing the phone back to Derek. They’ve made it to the front door now. “Well I guess I should let you go help Boyd, we’re gonna have a lot of weddings coming up.”

“Yeah.” Derek replies but doesn’t move. Stiles bites his lip and isn’t sure what he should do. Should he hug Derek? Kiss him on the cheek like Derek did last night? Kiss him on the lips? “I’ll text you okay? And we’ll work out another date?” Derek sounds so hopeful and looks a bit scared, like he thinks there’s any chance Stiles might say no.

“Absolutely, I look forward to it.” And it just feels natural to step forward and hug him. After a slight hesitation, Derek’s arms come around him as well. Stiles squeezes a little tighter and then they separate. Stiles opens the door before turning back. “I’m going to hunt for a really cool obscure meme for you. So get ready.”

Derek just laughs. “Bye Stiles.” He smiles at him one more time before turning and walking to the car park.

“Bye Derek.” Stiles murmurs far too late for Derek to have heard him, still standing in the doorway.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all the ADHD "techniques" I mentioned are just what my friend uses to help her son, I know everyone is different but that's where I got that information. I'm also sorry for the ridiculous amount of milkshake banter that then resulted in a ridiculously corny rom-com moment. That was pure self-indulgence.
> 
> I hope you guys really enjoyed this, I'm toying with continuing it every now and then and would love if you guys could give me prompts for what you'd like to see in this universe (even concerning other characters/ships not just Sterek. You can find me on tumblr nesselberry.tumblr.com


End file.
